1. Field of the invention
The invention is directed to a method for rapidly and easily detecting the presence of any discontinuity in an anticorrosion oil coating applied onto the internal surfaces of a nautical ballast. The invention is also directed to an anticorrosion oil for use as such a coating, which oil contains tracer allowing its detection.
2. Description of related art
Water ballasts are commonly used to improve the stability and to control the draft of a ship. These are generally huge metallic reservoirs in which ambiant water is pumped in, as the ship is unloaded. A stable center of gravity within the ship is thus maintained. The ballasts are generally divided into fore peak tank, after peak tank and wing tanks water ballasts.
These ballasts have a high tendency to corrode and for this reason, they are oil coated to substantially slow down corrosion. The oil is either applied by spraying with a spray gun, or by a floating operation wherein oil is poured into a ballast filled up with water. In this operation, the supernatant oil over the water is layed over the inside walls of the ballast as the water is removed from the bottom of the ballast.
In view of the high tendency of the ballasts to corrode, it is very important to ensure that the oil entirely covers their internal walls. For this purpose, persons have to enter into the ballasts to inspect the continuity of the oil coating. However, such an inspection is subjective and so far has not been satisfactory.